South Korea's top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is anticipated to sell 45 million units of its latest in the flagship Galaxy smartphone line in 2015, a news report said Monday, falling behind earlier market expectations.

Samsung started official sales of the Galaxy S6 series on April 10. The Galaxy S6 boasts Samsung's first built-in wireless-charging batteries, and the offbeat Galaxy S6 Edge also has been grabbing the market's attention with the industry's first screen that is curved on both the left and right edges.

"Samsung continues to struggle at the low-to-mid end, while the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge combined look on course to reach a respectable 45 million units this year," EE Times said, citing a report released by Deutsche Bank.

If the sales estimate is accomplished, the Galaxy S6 will manage to catch up with the Galaxy S4, which holds the current annual sales record at 45 million units.

The latest estimate, however, falls behind expectations made earlier by other market analysts.

Industry tracker DRAMeXchange had earlier estimated combined sales of 55 million units for the new lineup, while Hong Kong-based researcher Counterpoint had offered a 50-million sales figure for this year.

Upon the release of the models, some analysts here also gave a 70-million sales estimate. (Yonhap)